The five teenagers accused of carrying out a “three month campaign” of bullying that resulted in Phoebe Prince’s suicide last year have been sentenced. Three of the teens received probation and community service sentences, while two others only face probation.

On Thursday a juvenile court in Massachusetts sentenced Ashley Longe, who prosecutors called “the primary tormentor” on the last day of Prince’s life, with probation until her 19th birthday (she is now 18) and 100 hours of community service. Prince, a 15-year-old student who had recently moved from Ireland, killed herself in January 14, 2010 after being bullied by several students at a high school in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Two other teens were also sentenced today on charges of criminal harassment, including Sharon Velasquez, 17, who will be held on probation until her 18th birthday for approaching Prince in the hall and calling her a “disparaging remark,” according to the Boston Globe. She confronted her again later in the day. The other teen, 18-year-old Flannery Mullins, will be on probation until her 19th birthday for a civil rights violation without bodily injury and disturbing a school assembly.

The sentences come one day after two other students, 18-year-olds Sean Mulveyhill and Kayla Narey, were sentenced on harassment charges to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors said in the fall of 2009 Prince and Mulveyhill had a brief relationship that came to the attention of Narey, Mulveyhill’s girlfriend, and the pair and their friends bullied Prince as a result. In the first public apology, Narey wept during her statement to the judge and apologized to Prince’s family and addressed Phoebe herself.

“Phoebe … I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry for the unkind words I said about you. I’m sorry for what I wrote on my Facebook page. Most of all I’m sorry for Jan. 14, in the library and in the hallway, when I laughed when someone was shouting humiliating things about you. I am immensely ashamed of myself.”

All five teens struck plea deals with the prosecution where, in exchange to pleading guilty on the misdemeanor charge of criminal harassment, the more serious charges they faced were dropped. Longe faced the most serious charges including one count of each assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, criminal harassment, disturbing a school assembly and a civil rights violation with a bodily injury resulting. The felony charge civil rights violation with bodily injury alone carries a 10-year maximum sentence. Some of the other accused teens also faced the violation of civil rights with bodily injury charge, as well as statutory rape and stalking.

Alfred Chamberland, a defense lawyer for one of the teens, said the plea deal was “an acknowledgment by the Northwestern district attorney’s office that these matters were overcharged and that the former administration brought felony indictments in cases which did not call for such.”

A sixth teen, 19-year-old Austin Renaud, has not been accused of bullying, but has been charged with statutory rape for having sex with Prince, who was 15 when he was 18. He is due in court on July 6.

During the trials, Prince’s mother, Anne O’Brien, addressed the court in her first public statement saying, “It is nearly impossible to measure the impact of Phoebe’s death upon our lives. … There is a dead weight that now sits permanently in my chest.”

One of the last text messages Prince sent was “I can’t take much more. …”

the Superintendant and the principal turned their ears and eyes away as these situations were taking place. I was very involved in my kids lives as they were attending South Hadley High School during this entire thing. I was also involved with a significant complaint against South Hadley about another issue, where it became very clear to me, that South Hadley residents, some, not all, were not open to strangers and definetly not strangers that treaded on their turf like Phoebe and myself.....I speak of this from experiencing the hatred and deeply rooted ignorance from dealing with multiple people in South Hadley. And they really never learned anything from what took place

Very sad story and yes i blame the school teachers and administration for allowing this to mushroom out of control. Any caring headmaster or teacher would assemble the entire school together and announce anyone found bullying will be expelled/punished and any victims bullying should immediately report it or come to the office whatever and log an official complaint, show evidence(facebook etc) etc.

Simples really, it is not rocket science, it boils down to caring and this school obviously did not care.

I just read on Wikki that Phoebe was part of a bullying gang in Ireland and the girl who was bullied had to leave the school, Pheobe did write a letter to her to apologise, it was over boys as well! Now i donnot see this as she got was she deserves, but again it shows up the lack of care and protection schools ARE NOT providing to individuals!!

i can't believe all they got is a year or more in probation. They should have this on their permanent record and actually have to do some time in prison. Does anyone really think they will learn from this. They just say they are sorry cause they know the courts all want to hear is remorse for their victim so they would get a lighter sentence.

After completing a huge course thesis on bullying last year, I came to the final conclusion that bullying is ignored and lied about by school officials, like in this case (the despicable school administration), because the school seeks to avoid further lawsuits as being culpable. This is because if the school addresses the situation, then it admits knowledge, and then the school can be held somewhat responsible. Avoiding blame is the biggest impetus pushing many of these schools--that and avoiding their own monetary losses. My advice to any parent who is suffering with her child because of bullying is to do the following things: (1) If you discuss anything with a school representative about bullying, place a recorder in visible sight when you are talking and after the person speaks for the first time, and refuse to put it away; (2) document everything you can with emails to the school, and use your Microsoft Outlook to have "received" receipt returned emails; (3) do not allow your child to erase a single thing said to her or him online or on her or his cell phone, keeping all of it; (4) file charges criminally with the local police, using your state's revised code definition of cyber stalking, stalking, or harassment; and if you are brave, (5) blog about it, using every piece of evidence you have in printscreens or online pictures, sending the link to the parents of the child harassing your kid if they confront you as a liar. The school will go out of its way to keep the children's identity anonymous of who might be bullying your child, so make sure you child knows his or her name(s). You can easily find them on Facebook. Finally, initiate NO contact with the children yourself; leave that to the police and the courts. Remember, these teachers might actually care, but they are trained by the school to acknowledge nothing. And a last note, if you find out your child is the bully, for God's sakes, don't pretend it's not happening or try to minimize it.